


Avalon Curse

by GwenethLee



Category: Le Chevalier de la Charrette | Lancelot the Knight of the Cart - Chrétien de Troyes, Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2020-10-26 03:36:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20735591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GwenethLee/pseuds/GwenethLee
Summary: A mother will do anything to protect her child. She will sacrifice anything, even her own soul if that is what it takes. But not all monsters can be slain in battle, some lurk under our very skin. When single mother, Serena Rycroft’s daughter Cora was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she vowed she would do anything to save her. Now, with Cora’s life in the balance and out of options in the mundane world, Serena sets off on a mad quest for something in the supernatural world that might save her beloved daughter. What she finds are Faeries, knights of legend, and dangers she never could have anticipated.





	1. Cotton Candy Girl

Her daughter was going to be late for school.

Standing in the kitchen, the clock above the stove verified that time to avoid such a fate was rapidly slipping away. Pulling a blazer on over her blouse, Serena absently wondered when she had stopped worrying about tardies and absences for her daughter. Her priorities were different from other parents, who were determined to get their children to each event on time if not early, to achieve a medal of approval for a lack of tardies for their child, or most snack days hosted in their classrooms. 

Serena hadn’t been able to care about those things in a long time. She hadn’t been able to care about the other parents and what they thought in what felt like ages either. Her daughter Cora made good grades, she learned well and studied hard, even at the age of nine. Somehow that just seemed more important than gaining the approval of the PTA. 

“Did you remember your lunch?”

Serena rolled her eyes, seeing the lunch bag sitting on the counter beside a forgotten breakfast. Sighing, she moved to tuck the lunch bag into the magenta and lime back pack by the front door as a blur of indigo skidded to a stop in the kitchen. Blue hair had been a statement on the first day of school and had gotten both mother and daughter a great many stares, but Serena didn’t care. She ruffled the indigo head of her daughter as she set a glass of orange juice down in front of her. 

“It’s in your bag.”

There was a bright pink bow pulling the blue bangs to the side and Serena chuckled, returning to her coffee as her daughter guzzled her orange juice through colossal bites of muffin. 

“Don’t forget to swallow, Miss Cotton Candy.”

The petite fourth grader looked genuinely distraught for approximately five seconds before her face grew determined and she raised a defiant chin. “I like pink. And I don’t care if people don’t think it looks good with my hair.”

“That’s my girl.” 

By the grace of the traffic gods, they managed to pull up to the school in time to avoid another tardy and Serena waved as Cora ran up the stairs to the door of the school moments before the bell rang. One victory down, Serena pulled the car away from the curbside of the school and merged into traffic to face the rest of the day. With any luck it would have the same success rate as the morning had so far. 

“Morning Mrs. Rycroft.”

Serena looked up from the keys in her hand to see Dottie, the elderly woman from the shop next door setting out a sign declaring the special of the day to be cinnamon pita with fruit and hot cocoa. Two sided and nearly as tall as the older woman, the sign had been decorated with chalks and sported an abundance of swirls and spirals. Serena smiled as she unlocked the door to her own shop. 

“Good looking sign you have there, your granddaughter’s work?”

The older woman gave a toothy grin. “My Amelia, she the best. You come by later and try the cinnamon pita. Better than sex, I tell you.”

Ignoring the rising warmth in her cheeks, Serena tried to ignore the last half of the comment and made a gesture instead at her full hips. 

“Can’t afford it, Dottie. I have a figure to maintain.”

The older woman scoffed with amusement before going about her own work, leaving Serena to open her own business. Stepping inside, she basked in the homey feel of her shop. She had opened Tomes and Treasures five years previous, when Cora had only been a few years old. Selling new and used books as well as writing supplies and Knick-knacks, the shop had been a success to the local school and tourist communities. 

The floors inside Tomes and Treasures were worn oak sealed smooth and dark. To the front lay the shelves for Home, Garden and cooking related books, flanked by archways that led to poetry on the right and nonfiction and biographies on the left. Each of these side areas had its own small room to itself, with books from floor to ceiling. Non-fiction had a small fireplace and couch with two chairs set up around it, while poetry had a chaise lounge and a display of cameos, fountain pens and journals for sale behind it. Between these three sections and the rest of the store lay the front desk, a circular number which sported a single register to one side and a computer to the other from which the inventory could be accessed as needed. Past this island of technology was a series of areas; to the far left lay the teen corner. Filled with young adult fiction, plenty of light and more outlets than anywhere else in the store, the teen section also sported a shelf with lap desks and cushions which would without fail end up in varying locations throughout the store on weekends.

The arch from the teen section made a smooth transition into Fiction and Fantasy sections and beyond these was the pride and joy of Tomes and Treasures. The Children’s section had been Serena’s proudest achievement. With chairs outside the section by Adult Fiction and Fantasy, adults could easily brows their own section while still being able to keep their little ones within sight, and unlike some of the other sections, the Children’s section was a dead end. One would never notice that though, as the area was designed in an L-Shape. The first bend held the classics, Hans Christian Anderson, Collections of Fairy tales, and the longer children’s series such as the Chronicles of Narnia or Anne of Green Gables as well as books for the younger children, new readers and those still relying on others to read for them. 

When Serena had toured the building for the first time, appraising its value and trying to see her shop within it, she had been met with a charming corner room with an unsightly pillar right at the bend. A structural oversight from a previous remodel, the agent had told her. But it would be a huge expense to remove it because it helped support the general structure of the room. Instead of removing it, she had decided to transform it. Padding it with old carpets and covering it with foam had created something safe for clumsy children, but did nothing for the unsightliness of it. 

It was then that she had met Amelia, the granddaughter of Dottie, the owner of the café next door, who had come in to deliver a Welcome Basket. Amelia had taken one look at it and deemed it a tree. As a college student on holiday, Amelia had gladly taken the commission to decorate the pillar and Serena hadn’t been disappointed. Green carpets had been tacked down to cover the hard floors and the pillar turned tree was the finishing touch that now transformed the Children’s area into a realm of enchantment. 

Closing the door behind her, Serena reached into the small brass box by the door and pulled out the mail, setting her purse on the mahogany counter as she sifted through the envelopes. Bill, Bill, invoice for the water delivery, another invoice, most likely for the heavy boxes of new merchandise. 

“So it begins.” She said to herself, and headed toward the deliveries. 

Two hours into the unpacking and indexing of the newest deliveries and Serena felt like her head was about to explode. They had gotten a new shipment of young adult fiction which was a blessing and curse in one. The section was quite full as it was, so it would mean reorganizing several shelves to accommodate the new arrivals, but with any luck the high school students who came in after school would buy them up before the next round of releases came out.

“Morning Serena!”

Serena started at the sing-song voice that echoed through the otherwise empty shop. Lucy Pierce, one of the half dozen or so employees that worked at Tomes and Treasures reminded her in many ways of a Disney princess. She sang more than she spoke and was a marvel at story time in the children’s section, where even the toddlers sat still during her energetic stories. 

“Sorry I’m late, my alarm didn’t go off. But I brought coffee.”

Setting down a stack of dystopian fantasies written by an up and coming author that the kids were devouring, Serena accepted the cup.

“Thank you for the coffee. As for being late, you can do penance by putting up the new arrivals and we’ll let it slide.”

Clearly this was enough for Princess Lucy, who tossed her purse behind the counter and promptly gathered up the stack and wove her way toward the young adult section. Serena rolled her eyes and picked up the purse which had missed the shelf and fallen to the floor. Tucking it into one of the cubbies beneath the register, she flipped on the Open sign in the window and prepared for the first customers of the day. 

The day moved with the same tempo of any other, and once the new books were all given new homes, Serena passed the watching of the front to Lucy and retired to her office to work on the new inventory list and the next months’ worth of employee schedules. 

“Hey Serena?”

“Two seconds,” Serena said without looking up from the spread sheet of numbers on the cluttered desk in front of her. She made a note to the side and punched a series of numbers into the calculator beside her then looked up. “Okay, what’s up?”

“I finished the new arrivals so I started in on the used books and wasn’t sure where these ones should go.” She held a stack of five or six goodly sized texts which looked like they were in decent condition compared to some of the used books they got in. Glancing around at her desk, Serena gestured toward a clean square of space next to the printer. 

“Set them over there and I’ll get to them after I finish with payroll.” She said with resignation. She simply couldn’t focus on them right now. 

Lucy deposited the books in the space she had gestured to and sashayed back out into the shop. Notes of smooth jazz floated into Serena’s office. The music had probably been playing most of the morning, but she hadn’t even noticed it, which was a definite sign that it was time for a break. She rose and stretched, glancing at the clock. Or perhaps not. It was just a little before when she would need to leave to pick up Cora. She looked back at her desk, so long as payroll was done by Wednesday it would be fine. Close enough of a settlement to remove the guilt from her conscience she decided it could wait for tomorrow. She gathered her things and closed her office door, locking it before heading toward the door.

“Lucy, I’m heading out. Sarah and Mark should be in soon to tap you out and close up. Please let them know that I probably won’t be back in tonight.”

The school bell ringing woke Serena from her dozing. She hadn’t realized that she had nodded off. Wiping at her eyes, she looked toward the stairs leading up to the school doors and waited to see a tuft of indigo in the sea of school uniforms.  
“You’ve been awfully quiet; did you have a bad day at school?”

In the back seat, the small form behind the backpack covered lap shrugged. “Not really. My head hurts.”

Serena frowned as she wove through traffic, escaping the insanity of the fray that always surrounds schools at the end of the day. Once she had gotten onto the less crowded roads, she glanced up into the rear view mirror at her daughter.*  
“Did you take your medicine this morning?”

A nod was the only response at first, but then there was hesitant addition, “I had to take another after recess.”

Well that would explain why she was so withdrawn. While the medicine kept the worst of the headaches at bay, it also took a lot of the pizazz out of the normally energetic little girl,. She reached between the seats and patted her knee sympathetically.  
“Why don’t you rest for a little bit while I work on supper?”

This time there wasn’t a verbal response to accompany the nod; she just turned and looked blankly out the window at the world passing them by. Serena pulled her attention from the mirror and focused on the road. The sooner she got them home, the sooner Cora could rest. Given how she was feeling, she decided to change the previous plan for dinner. Meatloaf could wait for another day, this called for macaroni and cheese. Some might call it indulgent to change plans to Cora’s favorite because of a hard day, Serena called it good parenting. 

“I need Dr. Toma’s nurse please. Yes, I’ll hold.”

Serena stood in the doorway between the dining room and living room. Cora had laid down on the couch minutes after they got home and was curled up there now with a soft pillow under her head and her favorite Wonder Woman blanket draped over her. Serena had waited until the little girl’s breathing leveled out before picking up the phone. She stepped back quietly, moving back to the kitchen to stir the macaroni noddle’s just as the hold music cut off and a familiar nurse’s voice came out of the receiver.  
The phone call only lasted a few minutes once the nurse answered, “Good afternoon, Linda. Its Serena Rycroft. Cora had to take two doses of medicine for her headaches today.”

Stirring dinner turned into a therapeutic exercise, keeping her hands from fidgeting as the nurse went through her daughters chart and then answered. "You're sure it’s alright?” 

The voice on the other end of the phone was trying to be reassuring but didn’t do anything for her nerves. She glanced around the corner again, checking on Cora’s sleeping form, still and quiet. Instructions followed and she stepped back into the kitchen, turning the pot on the stove off and pacing, nodding absently despite the fact that the nurse on the other end couldn’t see her do so.

“Yes, I understand. We’ll call if it happens again. Thank you.”

She set the receiver down, leaning against the counter. The clock on the wall ticked away the seconds and minutes of the evening as Serena released the counter and filled the ruby red kettle on the stove and set it to boil.


	2. Homework and History

It is a fact universally acknowledged that tea helps all situations. Arguably not the way Austen wrote the line, but it was still true. The steaming cup of chai had calmed Serena’s anxiety enough for her to finish dinner and put her ‘mom-face’ back on before rousing Cora for dinner and homework. It took a few minutes for the light to come back to the girl’s eyes as she emerged from her blanket turned cocoon and walked to the table with more stumble than step. She perked up some at the sight of the cheesy miracle of macaroni on the table and reached for the serving spoon.

“No meatloaf?”

Serena smiled at the hopeful look on Cora’s face and shook her head. She set down a plate of pigs in blankets, steaming hot dogs poked out form layers of crescent rolls then took her own seat. “Nope, it’s definitely a mac-n-cheese night.”

The solid if not entirely healthy meal helped to bring a bit more of her daughter’s usual personality back and she proceeded to tell Serena about her day and what they were learning in earth science and what books they were reading in Literature studies. Which despite some disappointment that they weren’t reading more interesting and longer books, Cora seemed genuinely happy. Serena gave feedback where openings arose and felt a little bit of the weight on her shoulders relax. Finding a school that would work for Cora had been a trying experience. They had moved here barely a year past to be closer to the shop and to Cora’s doctors.

As a single mother, Serena had long since come to grips with the fact that many professionals simply wouldn’t take her seriously at first. After two or three meetings though, most of them caught on to the fact that she meant business. The real estate agent who sold them the house had been an exception to the rule. He had been a perfect gentleman and took her seriously from the start. At their first meeting he had not only brought a list of properties but a list of schools in the area as well, which turned out to be how they found Cora’s school. A catholic primary school that lay a mere fifteen minutes from Tomes and Treasures, the teachers and staff had been understanding and helpful and unlike many of the other schools they had checked, didn’t treat Cora any differently than the other students and that made all the difference in the world to both of them.

“My daughter has a medical condition and some of the schools we’ve had her in have dealt with it poorly.”

The principal of the school was a matronly woman who wore her grey hair in a tight bun which suggested a strictness that seemed in conflict to the laugh lines on her face. She looked down at the file in front of her and saw what Serena had mentioned and shook her head.

“I don’t foresee it being a problem honestly.” She said. The nonchalance set Serena back and the woman folded her hands making a gentle addendum.

“The way we see it our students should be focusing on learning the skills that are going to help them for years to come. We try to keep all our students as focused on that as possible. We obviously cannot promise that bullying and gossip will not happen. But because we have a more reasonable balance of teachers to students we are generally able to keep it from becoming disruptive or harmful to any of our students.”

Serena nodded, but still looked doubtful. Seeing this the principal rose, crossing to a shelf. She returned a moment later with a yearbook dated three years previous and opened it to a page then handed it to Serena. She saw the reason easily. In the center of a row of students was a boy older than Cora by a few years. His head had been shaved on one side, and hair was still growing back over a scar along the side.

“Matthew was only with us for two years. He was diagnosed a few months after arriving, but the students were very supportive of him during his surgeries and treatments. He did not make it. But hopefully it will help your decision to know that Cora will not be the first to have a serious medical condition under our care.” The principal said as she returned to her seat.

“It does help. Thank you.” Serena said, and closed the book, setting it on the desk.

The next part was the easiest, bringing Cora to meet with who would be her teachers and familiarize herself with the school. It was smooth sailing from there out. The house deal had come through by chance once they had settled on the school, having narrowed their choices to homes within decent distance to both school for Cora and work for her mother. They had gone to view the last house on the agent’s list and while it had all of the necessities it also came with more fixing up than Serena felt comfortable taking on with everything else in a state of flux. So they had started on the back towards the pitifully small rental that was serving as their current accommodations.

“That’s a pretty house.”

“Which one, sweetheart?”

“That one. With the green roof.”

That one with the green roof had a For Sale sign in the yard. Surprised that he hadn’t heard about it yet, the agent had asked if they wanted to take a look and so they did. The sign had been put up that afternoon, after finally finishing the remodeling needed to put it on the market. The owners, a stressed and overwhelmed couple trying to get the house sold and move before winter had been surprised at the quick response and had let them tour the house on no notice.

“Are you sure you don’t mind? We really can make an appointment.” Serena had said when the couple waved them into front room.

“Not at all, we’re still packing a bit but the larger furniture is still here so you can see what it looks like lived in. Well, not too lived in you see. We did renovate. Quite a lot.”

The wife had tittered on and stepped aside as the real estate agent distracted her about the efficiency rating so that Serena could take a better look around. The house was detached, which was rare in the area they were looking at, but was a definite plus in her books. Detached meant that she wouldn’t have to deal with rowdy neighbors to the side, which had been an issue before with Cora’s headaches.

“How many bedrooms?”

“Three, plus the study.” The husband provided with a heavy Yorkshire accent, taking over the tour while his wife spoke animatedly with the agent.

“There’s a conservatory through here and a side door out to the back garden. The stairs lead to the second level with the bathroom right off the landing there.”

It was more room than they needed and sat just beyond their ideal price range. But the house itself was charming and sported an enclosed garden in the back which had clearly been well tended. Cora had wandered up the stairs ahead of them and came out through one of the doors as Serena stood chatting with the gentleman about the bathroom.

“I found my room, mum.”

Serena turned in surprise to her daughter and raised an eyebrow as the gentleman beside her let out a rumbling chuckle and a comment about the things said from the mouths of babes. Taking it in stride, Serena gestured at the door Cora had exited.

“Well I guess you’d better show me.”

It was a charming room and she saw right away why Cora fancied it. There was a window that looked over the garden and despite the smaller size of the room, it looked spacious thanks to its clever design. The bed was full sized and had been built into a nook in the wall with drawers below and flanking for storage, which eliminated the need for a dresser and a bedframe all in one and left plenty of room on the floor for her to spread out and play.

After getting the information for the couple’s agent they had disentangled themselves from the enthusiastic clutches of the wife, declining the offer to stay for supper twice before finally making it to the car and back on the road. It hadn’t been ten minutes before Cora’s eyes drifted shut and she was sound asleep. Serena looked over the seat at her before sitting back with a sigh. The agent had driven them and glanced over at her and made a head nod toward the back seat.

“Asleep?”

“I’m not surprised. It was a longer day than we had planned.” She said. The road marker told her that it would be another twenty minutes or so before they were home and the thought made her question how long she would spend at the shop tomorrow after all.

“The house is a bit out of the range you gave me, but I can add it to the list and call their agent. What I need to know is how hard to push. If you’re in love with it, I can push hard and probably get them closer to what you had in mind for cost. If not, then you’re probably better off with the one off Bramblewood that we saw this morning.”

Serena didn’t answer right away and he didn’t pressure her to do so. Instead she ran through the houses in her head and then looked over at him. “Cora told me that she had found her room in the last one.”

There was a knowing smile in the dark and he nodded, “I’ll push hard then.”

Pulling herself out of the memories of house and school hunting, Serena gathered up the now empty dinner dishes and carried them to the kitchen, packing up the left overs while Cora carried her back pack to the table.

“Would you grab my bag as well, dear?”

Washing dishes for two people didn’t take long and soon enough the two were once more sitting at the kitchen table, this time with homework spread out in front of them. They sat across from each other and Cora had open her text books with pencils and scrap paper to the side while Serena had inventory lists and a few sheets of blank paper that she was sketching out measurements on. Homework together didn’t happen every night. Cora had a desk of her own in her room and Serena had one in the study, but they tried to do homework together at least once a week. They would help each other, a tradition they had started early on as a practice in asking for help.

“You look stuck, anything I can help with?” Serena said, observing Cora’s frustrated attempts at her math homework.

Cora looked up from the paper and nodded, then saw Serena’s own endeavor and used her favorite card, holding out her worksheet and text book. “Swap?”

“Swap it is. What are we swapping?”

“Word problems in math. I don’t know why they can’t just out and say what they want.” Cora said, switching papers and books with Serena’s own stack.

“Fair point. I’m working on the design for the book shop window and I’m fresh out of inspiration. I’ll take a look at them and see if I can make any sense of it.”

Five minutes later a very humbled Serena passed the homework back to her daughter. It should not have taken her that long to figure out a basic math problem. But either math was getting harder for children in Cora’s age range or Serena was more dependent on her calculator than she should be. Meanwhile Cora’s art skills and creativity had made quick work of the dull display outline she had made and given in exchange an exciting display that, with a little bit of work and a visit to a shop or two, Serena could probably manage.

“What was your inspiration?” Serena asked, passing back the math homework.

“Alice through the looking glass. You have most of what you need in the shop and you can do Adventures in Wonderland next month. I drew that one on the back.”

There was a break then, while Cora explained the differences in the two designs and Serena hashed out details in the drawing with notations that she could follow. And after a good bit of distraction on that front, they did the reverse and discussed what Serena had found in the troublesome math homework. By the time they managed all that it was well past bed time and they were both glad for that fact. Homework was hastily packed away in backpack and suitcase by the front door, windows and doors latched and lights cut off before the two of them finally trudged up the stairs in the direction of comfortable beds and a solid night’s sleep.


	3. The Faerie Queen's Dressmaker

Morning came too quickly the next day. Serena was certain they had just gone to bed a short while ago. But now the sun was streaming obnoxiously through the window letting her know that it had in fact been more than a short while. It was going to be a two cup day, she could feel it already as she trudged down the stairs to put the kettle on before rousing Cora for school. She paused next to her bed though. Having the bed built into the wall had many advantages, the main one this morning being that it was sheltered from the sun streaming through the lavender curtains.

Cora was still out cold and had kicked off her blankets at some point in the night but hadn’t pulled them back up when she got cold and so she was curled in a ball around her pillow, blue hair sticking up in all directions like an azure halo around her head. Frowning, Serena leaned over and touched her wrist to Cora’s exposed forehead. Not hot enough to be a full blown fever, but definitely warmer than she should be. And with the headache she had yesterday, Serena wasn’t about to send her to school if she was getting sick. So instead she pulled the blankets up around her and watched as Cora relaxed under the warmth and nuzzled back to sleep. Serena crept down the stairs, sliding along the edge of the fifth one which would creak and potentially wake the newly tucked in little girl.

Serena made it down the stairs and took the gently whistling kettle off the stove and poured the steaming water into a large mug waiting on the counter. She took the cup into the conservatory and drank through a good half of it before picking up the phone to call the school and let them know to not expect Cora today. She went through the rest of the cup before looking at the clock and picking up the phone again, this time for a favor.

“Hey G, I was wondering if you could cover the shop today, Cora’s running a fever and I’m keeping her home from school. I’d rather not take her out unless I have to.”

She paused, starting another cup of tea as she listened to the whispering voice on the other line. The rest of her house must still be asleep too. That was odd, generally they were early risers. Serena frowned then. “James and Lucas? Oh G, I’m sorry. No, don’t worry about it. I’ll take Cora with me and she can nap in the crow’s nest.”

Assurances followed and Serena shook her head, “It’s okay. Take care of your boys. Love you too. Bye G.”

Setting down the receiver she felt suddenly glad she had put the kettle back on for a second cup. Her sister Gillian was the co-owner and manager of Tomes and Treasures and Serena had hoped that she would be able to come in for her so that she could stay home and take care of Cora, but her own family was sick apparently. Little James had brought something home from school and now both he and her husband Lucas were sick and it sounded as though Gillian wasn’t too far off herself.

Bringing her second cup back into the conservatory, Serena watched the sun bounce off of the roofs of surrounding houses and pour into the yard beyond the glass walls of the room in which she sat and let her mind wander. Gillian was only a couple of years younger than Serena, and had married the boy next door, literally. Lucas Trent had lived in the end of their terraced home since Serena and Gillian had been younger than Cora. The three had been close through school and it had come as no surprise to anyone when Lucas and Gillian announced their engagement. The wedding had come only two years after Serena’s own and she had been pregnant with Cora at the time. Her chest tightened with the memories and shook her head. She didn’t have the time or the emotional capacity to handle those memories right now. Finishing her tea, she rose and headed back upstairs to wake Cora.

“Sweetheart, I need you to get up now.”

“Mum…am I late?”

“Yes and no. I’ve already called the school but Aunt Gigi is sick too so you’re going to come with me to the shop today.”

There was more grumbling than normal, but Cora hauled herself out of bed and trudged toward the bathroom while Serena went back to her own room, pulling blankets up over the bed and getting dressed for the day. One of the beautiful things about being the owner of her own shop was being able to decide what was and was not work attire. And for Tomes and Treasures, plain clothes were perfectly fine. They weren’t so strict as to require trousers and skirts as part of their work attire and generally allowed their employees to wear tastefully comfortable clothes. Most of them took that to mean denim and a variety of shirts or blouses. This system had worked fairly well, with the assurance to the employees that they could always phone either Gillian or Serena if they wanted to check if something was acceptable.

For today Serena decided on a pair of jeans she had gotten in Kent on her last holiday with Cora. They had been more expensive than the clothes she normally invested in, but it had been a special shopping holiday for the two of them with a mission of purely fun based purchases. A few minutes more had her fully dressed and her thick brown hair pulled out of the way in a braid. She closed the door to her room and knocked on the bathroom door.

“Don’t take too long, dear. We need to eat before we go.”

The mumbled reply sounded as though it came through a washcloth but told her that she had been heard and that was close enough. She headed downstairs and set out two bowls and the milk for their cereal, cold today due to the rapidly approaching departure time and busied herself getting what they would need for the day in order.

It was sunny when they left the house, though clouds had started to dot the sky by the time they walked into the bookshop. There was a tall man leaning against the doors as they neared and looked up from his phone. Seeing Cora he grinned.

“Big boss running the show today, huh?”

Cora smiled and nodded, shouldering her backpack as Serena unlocked the door and waved them inside. Tommie was one of Cora’s favorites among the employees. With his fun loving attitude and eagerness to please, he had been spent many an afternoon playing with her in the children’s area.

“Morning Tommie. Can you get things open while I pull the stuff for the display?”

“Aye, Captain.”

He gave her a mock salute and winked at Cora as he headed for the desk. Serena unlocked the door to the office and stepped in behind Cora. The office itself wasn’t very large from a floor space perspective but it was quite tall and had a good amount of light thanks to the window in the loft window above. Fondly referred to as the Crow’s nest, they had built the loft to maximize the available space. Serena set her bag in the desk chair and pulled the ladder from the other side of the desk, lining it up with the bar along the line of the loft. Once it clicked into place Cora stepped up and climbed the ladder into the loft. The roof was angled, with the window on the slanted side and a folded futon mattress against the other. Serena climbed the ladder once Cora was up and leaned over the open space, leaning over to pull the shade shut over the window. There was still a glow from the light beyond but it was at least not quite as bright. Cora looked over the edge at the office below but Serena gestured her back.

“I’ll use the lamp. You can open the shade if you decide to read or work on homework. I’m leaving the ladder up, but be careful coming down, okay?”

“Kay,” Cora said.

She pulled out the folded mattress and proceeded to make herself a comfy place to lie down. Like most children, she didn’t seem to mind staying home from school, however unlike most children, she seemed more than okay with using the time to rest as she should. Serena climbed down and closed the office door behind her, moving on about the tasks in the shop.

Serena never wanted to see fishing line again. She had been standing in the window of the front shop for nearly an hour now and her fingers ached as she finished the job and climbed down wearily. Stepping outside, she stood on the sidewalk outside the shop and looked into the window at the newly finished display. Loose pages seemed to be falling from an open book which hung open in the window along with several other floating objects. A hairbrush, an antique mirror even a small lamp all hung at odd angles and spun with the movement of the fans inside, giving an effect of zero gravity to the display thanks to the help of an ungodly amount of clear fishing line. The base of the display now held faux grass speckled with over-sized mushrooms and a large papier Mache cat grinning maniacally from one corner. Appearing on the other side of the window, Tommie looked over the display and gave her a thumbs up from inside. Serena smiled and returned the gesture before going back in.

“Looks great, boss. I like the mushrooms.”

“Thank you. I’d forgotten we had them from the fairy tale display.” She said, reeling in the last of the fishing wire and putting it back into her tool box with the rest of the supplies she had used to put the display together. It was slow, which wasn’t unusual for this hour, with most people out at school or work. They would pick up more around the lunch hour, but that was a little ways off yet.

“Now that you’ve got that done, would you be alright with me taking my break now? I skipped breakfast and know you like us to get our breaks done outside of the rushes.”

Standing with the tool box, Serena nodded. “That would be fine, just let me put this up and check on Cora and then you can go.”

She carried the tool box back to the office and walked in quietly to set it down. Cora was awake, she had opened the shade slightly and was flipping through a book that was mostly made up of illustrations as Serena climbed the ladder to check on her.

“Hey princess, how are you feeling?”

“Not too bad now. Its better if I keep it a little dark.” She didn’t look up from the page she was studying as Serena touched her forehead gently, looking for a fever.

There wasn’t one, which should have made her relax. But she pushed her discomfort aside and leaned over to look at the illustration that had captivated Cora. It was beautiful, there was no question there. There was a large knotty limbed creature in the forefront surrounded by dozens of other similar creatures in all shapes and sizes, most of them far from pretty as creatures went, but the talent in the art was amazing. She lifted the cover to look at the title and author of the book.

“Faeries, huh? That looks like an interesting book.” Serena said.

“Tommie brought it up when he checked on me. I like the pictures. There’s one that has a pretty lady,” Cora said, flipping back through the book before coming to the page she had been looking for.

The lady Cora had mentioned was surrounded by other creatures in the illustration and stood out against them with fair skin, dark hair and fingers that looked unnaturally long. Serena studied the picture with interest. It was not just the fingers, all the features seemed elongated, drawn out and stretched. She was pretty, in an ethereal and fantastical kind of way.

“She’s the Queen of the Faeries.” Cora stated matter-of-factly.

“Oh is she now?” Serena studied the woman again and shook her head. “Nah, I think she wants to be the queen but she’s actually the queen’s dressmaker.”

Cora grinned and thought for a moment before continuing the story. “She makes all the queen’s dresses out of moonlight and star dust and flowers.”

It was a game they had started when Cora had started learning how to read. They would admire picture books together and tell stories about what they thought the picture was about. It was a game they still played, though now as she was older it had evolved into more than just picture books. They created stories for statues and portraits in art galleries and all sorts of places. It never ceased to amaze her how creative Cora could be with such things and it had reached a point where Serena was the one trying to keep up rather than the other way around.

“And one day there was a grand ball and the queen demanded a new dress more fantastic than any the dressmaker had ever created for there would be in attendance a handsome king whose heart she sought to capture.” Serena continued, leaning her chin on her hand as Cora shifted to be more comfortable.

“But the dressmaker was told she could not come to the ball.” Cora said, “Because the faerie queen was jealous of her beautiful dark hair and knew the king would fall in love with her instead if she came. But the dressmaker made a dress of her own in secret.”

Serena smiled, “She worked night and day to finish both dresses and when they were done, she brought the queen’s dress to her. The queen declared it was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen and took it from the dressmaker without so much as saying thank you.”

Both of them made gasping noises and covered their mouths. Cora giggled and continued, laying back against the pillow as she spoke, “The dressmaker was good though, and her feelings weren’t hurt. She just wanted to go to the ball and dance and have a good time. So she went back to her room and put on her dress. She’d made it out of…”

Cora paused, staring at the ceiling and thinking for a moment, “Roses. She’d taken hundreds of rose petals and stitched them together to make her dress. It had pearls and green ribbons and went all the way to the floor. Her shoes looked like glass, but they were really made of amber the same color as cherries. It was so fine that you could see her toes inside but they were sturdy and strong and beautiful.”

Serena nodded appreciatively at the creative adaptation of glass slippers and smiled as Cora tried to hide a yawn. It was a low grade fever, but some rest would do her better than a game. She reached across and pulled a blanket over Cora and kissed her forehead tenderly. “You dream the rest, sweetheart”

Standing on the ladder that long had probably not been the best call as her legs were now stiff and sore. Closing the office door behind her, Serena walked back into the store and paused outside of the nonfiction section.

“I thought you were going to lunch,” she said to Tommie, who was sitting on one of the couches with his laptop open, typing at a dizzying speed.

“I ate a sandwich. But I didn’t update my blog this weekend and I have to quell the surge of prying emails asking why.”

He paused and made a correction before continuing typing. Serena vaguely recalled him mentioning the blog before. Faerie and lore based, he did podcasts as well. She smiled and turned to let him be, “Oh, thank you for loaning that book to Cora. She’s quite fascinated by it.”

The younger man flashed her a grin and a thumbs up before returning to his writing and leaving Serena to help the customer whose arrival the brass bell over the door had announced.


End file.
